Eli Lilly and Company, an American pharmaceutical company headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana has announced plans to develop US$ 700M Lilly Institute for Genetic Medicine in BostonÂ
The Lilly Institute for Genetic Medicine will be developed on a 334,000 square feet leased space, located at 15 Necco St. in the Fort Point neighborhood, a rapidly expanding Seaport district of Boston. This 12-story state-of-the-art facility will serve as Lily’s headquarters and it will be managed and operated by Alexandria Real Estate Equities.
The new Lilly Institute for Genetic Medicine facility is inspired by Lily’s San Francisco Gateway Labs, a shared space for startups created in 2019. The building offers configurable laboratory and office spaces, as well as access to Lilly scientists and other collaborative opportunities with major pharmaceutical companies.
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Lilly expects the research facility, which will be built in collaboration with Prevail Therapeutics, the New York-based biotechnology company focused on developing novel gene therapies for patients with Parkinson’s disease and other neurodegenerative, that was acquired by Eli Lilly back in 2020, to create 150 new employment opportunities by 2024, the time that it will be operational.
Lilly Institute for Genetic Medicine to advance RNA-based therapeutics
Lilly’s investment in this state-of-the-art research facility is intended to advance RNA-based therapeutics. The facility will bring together researchers from Boston and New York to collaborate and make use of RNA and DNA-based technologies to develop therapies for the treatment or prevention of diseases, using techniques that are either challenging or unattainable with traditional medicines.
According to Andrew C. Adams, the V.P of genetic medicine at Lilly, building this Institute for Genetic Medicine would enable the company to match cutting-edge technologies with its deep biological expertise in various areas which also include neuroscience and diabetes. Adams explained that Lilly’s focus would be on an entirely new class of drugs, which target the underlying cause of diseases, a methodology that is essentially not the same as medicines accessible today.
The CEO and co-director of Prevail Therapeutics at Lilly, Franz Hefti also mentioned that the new institute, would improve the organization’s endeavors on neurodegenerative illnesses and integrate all of Lily’s genetic medicine research, with the aim of making breakthroughs in potentially life-altering new medicines.
